5th Grade

Students describe the major pre-Columbian settlement(s) of cliff dwellers and pueblo people of the desert Southwest, the American Indians of the Pacific Northwest, the nomadic nations of the Great Plains, and the woodland peoples east of the Mississippi River

Students trace the routes of early explorers and describe the early explorations of the Americas.

Students describe the cooperation and conflict that existed among the American Indians and between the Indian nations and the new settlers. 

Students understand the political, religious, social, and economic institutions that evolved in the colonial era.

Students explain the causes of the American Revolution. 

Students understand the course and consequences of the American Revolution. 

Students describe the people and events associated with the development of the U.S. Constitution and analyze the Constitution’s significance in the foundation of the American republic.  

Students trace the colonization, immigration, and settlement, patterns of American people from 1789 to mid-l800’s, with emphasis on the role of economic incentives, effects of the physical and political geography, and transportation systems. 

Social Studies Skills 

Compare and contrast how geography and climate influenced the way various nations lived and adjusted to the natural environment, including locations of villages, the distinct structures that they built, and how they obtained food, clothing, tools, and utensils. 

Recognize Pre-Columbian varied customs and folklore traditions

Explain Pre-Columbian varied economics and systems of government. 

Explain the entrepreneurial characteristics of early explorers, Christopher Columbus, Francisco Vasquez de Coronado, Hernando Magellan, and the technological developments that made sea exploration by latitude and longitude possible. 

Compare the aims, obstacles, and accomplishments of the explorers, sponsors, and leaders of key European expeditions and the reasons Europeans chose to explore and colonize the world.

Trace the routes of the major land explorers of the United States, the distances traveled by explorers, and the Atlantic trade routes that linked Africa, the West Indies, the British colonies, and Europe. 

Locate on maps of North and South America land claimed by Spain, France, England, Portugal, the Netherlands, Sweden, and Russia.

Evaluate the competition among the English, French, Spanish, Dutch, and Indian nations for control of North America.

Evaluate the cooperation that existed between the colonists and Indians during the 1600s and 1700s. 

Examine the conflicts before the Revolutionary War. 

Appraise the role of broken treaties and massacres and the factors that led to the Indian defeat, including the resistance of Indian nations to encroachments and assimilation

Evaluate the influence and achievements of significant leaders of the time

Explain the influence of location and physical setting on the founding of the original thirteen colonies and the American Indian nations inhabiting these areas.

Identify the major individuals and groups responsible for the founding of the various colonies and the reasons for their founding. 

Describe the significance of religious influences on the earliest colonies and the growth of religious toleration and free exercise of religion. 

Illustrate how the British colonial period created the basis for the development of political self-government and a free-market economic system and the differences between the British, Spanish and French colonial systems. 

 Describe the introduction of slavery into America, and appraise the responses of slave families to their condition, the ongoing struggle between proponents and opponents of slavery, and the gradual institutionalization of slavery in the South.  

Explain the significance of early democratic ideas and practices that emerged during the colonial period, including representative assemblies and town meetings. 

Understand how political, religious, and economic ideas and interests brought about the Revolution. 

Understand the significance of the relationship between people and events associated with the drafting and signing of the Declaration of Independence and the document’s significance, including the key political concepts, the origins of those concepts, and its role in severing ties with Great Britain.

Describe and compare the views, lives, and impact of key individuals during this period.

Identify and map the major military battles, campaigns, and turning points of the Revolutionary War, the roles of the American and British leaders, and the Indian leaders’ alliances on both sides.

Describe the contributions of France and other nations and of individuals to the outcome of the Revolution. 

Examine the different roles women played during the Revolution. 

Understand the personal impact and economic hardships of the war on families, problems of financing the war, wartime inflation, and laws against hoarding goods and materials and profiteering. 

Demonstrate knowledge of the significance of land policies developed under the Continental Congress

Compare and contrast the ideals set forth in the Declaration of Independence and how it changed the way people viewed slavery. 

List the shortcomings of the Articles of Confederation as set forth by its critics.

Explain the significance of the new Constitution of 1787, including the struggles over its ratification and the reasons for the addition of the Bill of Rights. 

Illustrate the fundamental principles of American constitutional democracy, including how the government derives its power from the people and the primacy of individual liberty. 

Demonstrate how the Constitution is designed to secure our liberty by both empowering and limiting central government and compare the powers granted to citizens, Congress, the President, and the Supreme Court with those reserved to the states. 

Discuss the meaning of the American creed that calls on citizens to safeguard the liberty of individual Americans within a unified nation, to respect the rule of law, and to preserve the Constitution. 

Examine ways by which citizens may effectively voice opinions, monitor government, and bring about changes in government and the public agenda including voting. 

Demonstrate civic responsibility in group and individual actions, including civic disposition such as civility, cooperation, respect, and responsible participation. 

Know and explain the significance of the songs that express American Ideals and how music contributes to cultural development. 

Illustrate the influx of immigrants from Europe between 1789 and l850 and compare their modes of transportation into the Ohio and Mississippi Valleys and through the Cumberland Gap. 

Identify the states and territories that existed in 1850, and compare and contrast their locations and major geographical features. 

Demonstrate knowledge of the explorations of the trans-Mississippi West following the Louisiana Purchase. 

Describe the experiences of settlers on the overland trails to the West. 

Examine the effect of Western Expansion and how territories became part of the United States, including the significance of the Mexican-American War. 

Students place key events and people of the historical era they are studying in a chronological sequence and within a spatial context; they interpret time lines. 

Students correctly apply terms related to time, including past, present, future, decade, century, and generation. 

Students explain how the present is connected to the past, identifying both similarities and differences between the two, and how some things change over time and some things stay the same. 

Students use map and globe skills to determine the absolute locations of places and interpret information available through a map’s or globe’s legend, scale, and symbolic representations.

Students judge the significance of the relative location of a place

Students differentiate between primary and secondary sources. 

Students pose relevant questions about events they encounter in historical documents, eyewitness accounts, oral histories, letters, diaries, artifacts, photographs, maps, artworks, and architecture. 

Students distinguish fact from fiction by comparing documentary sources on historical figures and events with fictionalized characters and events.

Students summarize the key events of the era they are studying and explain the historical contexts of those events. 

Students identify the human and physical characteristics of the places they are studying and explain how those features form the unique character of those places. 

Students identify and interpret the multiple causes and effects of historical events.

Students conduct cost-benefit analyses of historical and current events.